2017's top 10 Picket posts: Hunley, USS Monitor and a burial a century after death

It’s clear that Picket readers gobble up anything about the H.L. Hunley and USS Monitor. Five of the blog’s 10 most popular items written in 2017, per Google analytics, were about the famous Civil War vessels. They were followed by other archaeological news and a feature on a Federal soldier who was finally buried more than a century after his death. We wish you all the best in 2018 and thank you for your abiding interest!

Section of CSS Georgia casemate (USACE)

10. ROUND TWO OF IRONCLAD RECOVERY: While divers and cranes in 2015 brought up all kinds of cool stuff – including artillery pieces -- from the CSS Georgia site in Savannah, Ga., archaeologists needed to return this year to pluck two giant pieces of protective armor from the river bottom. Julie Morgan of the US Army Corps of Engineers gave a preview. • Read more

Don Scarbrough/Georgia State Parks

9. ACTION! FILMING RESUMES AT OLD MILL: The New Manchester Manufacturing Co. produced valuable textiles for the Confederacy before Yankee troops burned it during the Atlanta Campaign in 1864. The ruins, the focal point of Sweetwater Creek State Park in Douglas County, Ga., were stabilized this past summer. Tours, weddings and movie and TV filming have resumed in the interior of the brick remains. • Read more

(U.S. Navy)

8. DIFFERENCES ON HUNLEY LOSS RUN DEEP: Grad student Rachel Lance said she’d solved the mystery about why the first submarine to sink an enemy vessel failed to return to its mission. But the US Navy and those working on the Confederate boat say it’s too soon to come up with a conclusion. • Read more

7. THEY DIG THEIR WORK: Archaeology students at Georgia Southern University have a compelling laboratory in which to work – the remains of Camp Lawton, which held 10,000 Federal prisoners in late 1864. We spoke with project director Ryan McNutt about priorities for this crop of students. • Read more

McAllister vest (Georgia State Parks)

6. PUTTING A FACE TO HISTORY: Joseph L. McAllister grew up on a large piece of coastal Georgia land that became a Civil War fort named for his father. The Rebel officer served at the fort before being sent to Virginia, where he died in a large cavalry battle. His personal effects, including a vest, sword and spurs, are now on display at a state park near Savannah. • Read more

5. USS MONITOR TURRET: Once or twice a year, conservators drain the Union ironclad’s signature artifact so that they can get inside to do further cleaning and analysis. The plan is to eventually turn the turret right side up. This post was a preview of the work. • Read more

Stucker ashes (Bob Patrick)

4. HE RESTS IN PEACE -- FINALLY: Union veteran Zachariah M. Stucker died in 1914, but no one ever claimed his cremains. Two groups worked together to finally bring closure – and a resting place near Seattle – for the member of the 48^th Illinois Infantry. • Read more

3. WHAT DOOMED THE HUNLEY: Archaeologists and historians have long pondered what caused the submarine to disappear in Charleston Harbor; it could have resulted from a combination of factors. A report issued earlier this year addressed six leading theories. • Read more

Sections of conserved coat. (Image courtesy of Mariners' Museum)

2. TRICKY PUZZLE SOLVED: Reassembling a customized sailor’s coat found in pieces in the turret of the USS Monitor proved to be a real challenge. We looked at how the exhaustive conservation project turned out. • Read more

1. SURVEYING GETTSYBURG BATTLEFIELD: This post previewing archaeological work at Little Round Top and the George Spangler farm was by far the most popular item of 2017. It went viral, and I am sheepishly at a loss to fully understand why. But we’ll take it. • Read more

At Atlanta Cyclorama's new home, patrons will receive a whole new perspective

Design concept for new Cyclorama setting (Atlanta History Center)

Landscape painters Franz Biberstein, Bernhard Schneider and Wilhelm Schroeter, no doubt, would be thrilled that their monumental piece of art will be made whole again.

Returning to the Atlanta Cyclorama in its upcoming restoration and move to a new home is a vertical strip 6 feet wide and 50-feet high, trimmed long ago so that the once-traveling painting could fit into its current building at Grant Park in Atlanta. And there’s more: The Cyclorama will get back an 8-foot swath of sky around the 371-foot circumference.

For F.W. Heine and August Lohr, who worked out of Milwaukee in 1885 and supervised the 22-member German team, the Cyclorama’s presentation at the Atlanta History Center will restore the visual perspective they intended.

Rather than hanging much like a shower curtain, the painting depicting a critical moment during the July 1864 Battle of Atlanta will be attached in a hyperbolic, or hourglass, shape, meant to imbue a 3-D effect.

(Library of Congress)

For decades, visitors at Grant Park sat on a revolving platform, seeing only one section of the panorama at a time.

When the new Cyclorama building at the AHC opens in 2017, they will stroll up to the simple, circular platform and slowly take the whole experience in.

“You can’t see where it ends,” Gordon Jones, senior military historian and curator at the AHC, said of the new setting. “You are immersed in the scene.”

A witness to Civil War history

Cycloramas, or panoramas, once were wildly popular. Their heyday, peaking at about 1890, was before film and television became the predominant form of visual entertainment.

The Atlanta Cyclorama (its twin version no longer exists) was created during that boom as a tribute to the Federal victory at Atlanta. It eventually settled in Atlanta in 1892 and had various homes until the building at Grant Park opened in 1921.

Gordon Jones with old advertisement

The painting benefited from research conducted by its creators. They interviewed veterans of the battle and residents of the neighborhood a couple miles east of downtown Atlanta. They studied the landscape from a 40-foot wooden tower and referred to military maps.

The Cyclorama’s focal point is the Troup-Hurt House, where Confederates briefly broke the Union line before they were repulsed.

This bright spot gave Southerners a means by which to connect to the painting.

“It survived (by) being enshrined in a building in Atlanta as a symbol of the Lost Cause,” Jones recently told the Picket.

The relocation and restoration of the painting – along with accompanying diorama of plaster figures, artillery pieces and re-created natural elements – is a large undertaking. The Cyclorama closes after June 30 for the work to begin.

(Civil War Picket photos)

Hillary Hardwick with rendering of new atrium

The Atlanta History Center is in the midst of a construction project. A grand façade will usher visitors into the new Allen Atrium and exhibits that will have glass fronts and a feeling of connectiveness. A bistro/café will be located near the Cyclorama.

“It is about being more open, accessible and welcoming,” said Hillary Hardwick, vice president of marketing communications.

Construction of the 23,000-square foot Lloyd and Mary Ann Whitaker Cyclorama wing begins this fall.

Jones and others at the AHC have been busy researching other Cycloramas, hiring the painting restoration company and acquiring or negotiating new exhibits.

During our interview, Jones thumbed through photographs of a few panoramas, many of which are in Europe.

According to the International Panorama Council, about 96 360-degree or 180-degree works or art currently exist in 26 countries. Many of them, interestingly, are in China (a semi-circle depiction of a village on the Yellow River was painted in 2014). 

The cycloramas/panoramas tend to feature great moments in history (Waterloo and Gettysburg, for example) or great natural wonders. Twenty-five of those were created before World War II. The council told the Picket it did not know which venue is the most visited today.

Jones said the Atlanta Cyclorama, made with a Belgian linen backing, is “more intact” than the Gettysburg Cyclorama and a Jerusalem and crucifixion of Christ panorama in Quebec.

The AHC plans to follow other locations’ lead in allowing visitors to venture down to see the rigging and construction elements of the Cyclorama – to see what’s “behind the curtain.”

AHC patrons at certain times will be able to witness ongoing restoration before the new wing officially opens.

But first comes an assessment of the painting at Grant Park and the beginning of restoration later this year. A crew will have to first remove the diorama, including its 138 figures from the 1930s that will be restored.

“Once we are facing the painting we will know what more it needs,” said Jones.

The crew will stabilize the painting and roll it up – very carefully – into two to four rolls.

An ambitious 1979-1982 restoration led by Gustav Berger included the application of epoxy to join the 14 panels. The crew hopes it does not have to cut that adhesion, said Jones.

“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it,” he said.

(Civil War Picket photo)

Another wall or two will have to be busted down for the move of the locomotive Texas, which took part in the Great Locomotive Chase north of Atlanta in 1862.

Hardwick said the AHC plans to document all aspects of the move and restoration, with a focus on communicating through social media.

The little locomotive that could

AHC officials are excited about being able to show off the Cyclorama in the context of their extensive collection of Civil War artifacts, exhibits and documents.

Patrons, before walking to the viewing platform, will be able to see Civil War period photographs and maps.

They’ll also be drawn to the Texas, which was a transportation workhorse for the city for 50 years. “It was building Atlanta,” Jones said of the locomotive. “Here is the artifact that most symbolizes the city.”

The Texas was back in the headlines a couple months ago when word came that politicians and officials in Cobb County and Kennesaw, northwest of Atlanta, indicated they would tried to have the locomotive moved to the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History, which houses the General, which was chased by the Texas crew. They contend the Texas may belong to the state. Jones and Hardwick said the AHC has documentation proving it was given to the city.

Artist-historian Wilbur Kurtz found the locomotive in a rail yard and it was donated in 1908 to Atlanta, they said.

Hardwick said the story of the Texas, unlike that of the General, will be broader, with a focus on the growth of Atlanta and its critical railroad infrastructure. “The General was lauded as a relic. The Texas was forgotten,” said Jones.

The Texas is in pretty good shape, with some rust damage on the tender. Many of the parts have changed over time, and it was repainted by a Kurtz-led restoration during the 1930s.

“We have to present this as a locomotive whose parts have changed over time,” said Jones.

A wider Atlanta story to be told

AHC officials know visitors are like pinballs, swiftly moving from place to place. So they need to keep them interested.

Visitors will be able to use their smart phones to scan certain parts and figures in the painting for additional information. Curators will reintroduce an interactive display that will allow people to zoom in on Atlanta’s fortifications and streets during the battle. A Google map overlay gives you the modern street perspective. 

Officials want visitors to the Cyclorama wing to have a somewhat nostalgic feel, perhaps through old advertising banners for panoramas.

The painting area will have more consistent lighting than at Grant Park, but there will be no skylights. And while the painting may appear smaller because of its more open setting, the visitor can stay as long as she or he likes to appreciate the creativity and innovation that went into its production.

Interactive map kiosk (Picket photo)

Like many such institutions, the AHC in recent years has used its buildings and spaces for entertainment. Receptions will be held on the mural platform, proving a dramatic backdrop.

A new sound-and-light production likely will be played only once an hour. It will be an “enhancement, not an experience,” said Jones. The top floor will focus on the Atlanta Campaign, including a sword and revolver belonging to Union artillery Capt. Francis DeGress, whose battery held a critical part of the line on July 22, 1864.

But there’s a bigger picture beyond the details of the exhibit details, officials said.

While audiences years ago “were hungry to see what happened in the late unpleasantness 20 years before,” said Jones, today’s Atlanta is a much different place, with an appreciation for diversity and moving beyond pining for the Lost Cause.

Jones cited increased visits from people from Asia. “They think history is cool. It is the story of their new country.”

The AHC wants to tell a fuller story of Atlanta’s history and the story of the painting’s artists and the art form, and how the Cyclorama was interpreted over time.

The addition of the interactive map kiosk adds to the appeal – people can see the battlefield’s area and where they live, shop and play today.

Jones said the AHC wants patrons to go home and do further research.

“This experience is a good start.”

(Atlanta History Center)

Readying for restoration, move: Atlanta Cyclorama soon to close at Grant Park

(Picket and Library of Congress photos)

I was a couple minutes behind and hurried to join the rest of the audience. The large room was nearly pitch-black and my hands felt like paws as they tried to find an empty seat during the crawl up the carpeted steps. I could just make out a couple silhouetted heads and finally clutched a seat near the top of the platform. Whew! Just in time for the performance.

The lights came on. The Civil War’s Battle of Atlanta began.

The crowd of 35 at the Atlanta Cyclorama & Civil War Museum gazed at the massive painting and took in the light-and-sound presentation as the revolving platform took us around the massive mural twice. We passed the Troup-Hurt House, where the Confederates briefly broke through the Federal line on July 22, 1864. Passed Union Maj. Gen. John A. “Blackjack” Logan and his staff riding furiously toward the front. Passed fake cannon and plaster figures in the diorama, including one bearing a likeness of “Gone With the Wind” star Clark Gable, who said during a visit to the Atlanta Cyclorama that the only thing that could improve it was to add him. They did so -- but he ended up as the face of a dead soldier.

Near the end of the dated production, the recorded narration said of the Confederate loss at Atlanta: “So many dreams died that day. So perished this cause.”

The lights back on, we made our way to the edge of the giant platform, taking in details of the slightly rippled, magnificent work of art.

Rendering of painting's future home (Atlanta History Center)

I lingered a few minutes with others to speak with our guide and I walked out to take in the museum’s other exhibits, including the famed locomotive Texas.

It was a bittersweet moment last Friday. After all, it was the last time I would sit on the platform at Atlanta’s Grant Park, where the mural, painted by German artists in 1885-1886, has been housed in the same building since 1921. I first visited in 1974 and have made a few more stops since then.

The Atlanta Cyclorama’s last day in its current location is Tuesday, June 30. It will close with little fanfare.

After then, the cultural and historic landmark prepares for the next phase of its storied life. The painting is being relocated to the Atlanta History Center in the city’s Buckhead neighborhood, where an extensive restoration will be completed.

What’s to become of the old property?

New entry area for Zoo Atlanta; Cyclorama building in background

This zoo building near Cyclorama will be removed (Zoo Atlanta)

Zoo Atlanta, right next door in Grant Park, will raze its old administrative office near the entrance and place those and other functions in the old Cyclorama building. The change also will allow for an expansion of the African savanna exhibit and the addition of elephants (two currently are at the zoo).

“We are appreciative of the mayor (Kasim Reed) bestowing us taking over a treasured building that has a legacy in Atlanta,” Keisha Hines, the zoo’s senior director of communications, told the Picket.

While there is no firm opening date for the new Cyclorama building, AHC officials told the Picket last week they expect it to be sometime in early to mid-2017.

AHC officials are excited that the move will bring new interpretation opportunities for the Cyclorama, which covers 15,030 square feet and is 42 feet tall and 358 feet in circumference. The $32.2 million project, funded largely through donations and philanthropies, will include an endowment for long-term maintenance and ensure more people will see the painting, which officials refer to as an artifact.

Gordon Jones, senior military historian and curator at the Atlanta History Center, said once the restoration is done, people will see the Cyclorama as its artists envisioned – from an open platform with a 3-D effect. And the view won’t be hemmed in as it currently is at Grant Park (you only see a third or so of the painting at any given time because of the large rotating platform). Another bonus is the return of sections that were trimmed so that the mural could fit inside the current building.

Jones understands why some are nostalgic about the painting-in-the round's long tenure at Grant Park. (The painting has been in Grant Park since the 1890s; it once was in a wooden building).

“It’s the end of an era and the beginning of another. It makes you sad. It was an Atlanta icon for so long,” Jones told the Picket. “So many have taken care of it -- (Artist-historian) Wilbur Kurtz and the staff. It has been a labor of love for a lot of people.”

A 1979-1982 renovation of the building and conservation led by Gustav Berger ensured the painting’s survival. But the city’s funding limited what could be done in new forms of interpretation and long-term care of the painting, and it was never able to pay for a proper means of attachment to the walls (it hangs now like a shower curtain).

“This is the right thing to do,” Jones says of the impending move. “We are a long-term care facility.”

(Picket photo)

Squabble over famous locomotive Texas

The addition of the Cyclorama will add to the AHC’s permanent exhibits and collections relating to the Civil War.

Asked what items from the Grant Park location he is most excited about coming to the AHC, Jones mentioned four artillery pieces that stood vigil at Fort Walker in what is now Grant Park and a Robert Schade figure study (below) used as guide for the mural’s artists.

Another star of the show will be the locomotive Texas.

On April 12, 1862, the Texas took part in the famous Great Locomotive Chase, or Andrews Raid. Steaming in reverse, the locomotive pursued the fleeing General that had been commandeered by Union soldiers and civilians in disguise.

The Texas was back in the headlines a couple months ago when word came that politicians and officials in Cobb County and Kennesaw, northwest of Atlanta, indicated they would try to have the locomotive moved to the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History, which houses the General.

A state representative told the Marietta Daily Journal in April that he believes the Texas may be state property, rather than the city of Atlanta’s. “It just makes all kinds of sense in the world to be housed somewhere in Cobb. This is where the historical event actually took place, and I know that it would be well cared for by that museum for sure,” Rep. Earl Ehrhart said. He told the newspaper he may introduce legislation to make it happen if state officials don’t reach a decision.

Frieze on the Cyclorama exterior

While the chase did not take place in Atlanta, the Atlanta History Center says extensive research has uncovered a document that goes in its favor.

“We are certain it belongs to the city,” Jones said, describing a timeline in which a railroad line disposed of rolling stock and a ladies’ association bestowed the Texas to Atlanta after the state declined it.

Hillary Hardwick, vice president of marketing communications at the AHC,” said “there is nothing to discuss.” Plans are being made to have the Texas tell a wider story of the founding and growth of Atlanta transportation and there is value in having the trains in different locations to tell two stories, she said.

Officials will have to bust out a wall at the Grant Park building in order to move the locomotive by crane to a flat-bed truck for the journey north to Buckhead.

A panoramic journey way back in time

Mike Saulsberry

Sitting on the 184-seat viewing platform at Grant Park, southeast of downtown Atlanta, was like a trip back in time – to a sweltering day in July 1864. The mural, all 9,334 pounds of it, is epic in scale and focus. The focal point of the painting depicts fighting about a mile and a half from Grant Park.

Among those I joined Friday on the stage was Mike Saulsberry of Michigan.

He and his brother, who lives in the Atlanta area, had visited the site in the late 1990s and he was interested in seeing it again after delving deeper into history and genealogy in recent years.

The brothers have ancestors, James and Edward Gish, who served in the U.S. Colored Troops’ Company D, 108^th Regiment, and Henson Salsbury with Company F, 122^nd Regiment.

“I liked the fact that the presenter took time to answer questions,” Saulsberry said of Friday’s presentation. “He gave us an opportunity to get up and walk around.” At Gettysburg’s cyclorama, he said, the presentation was too quick. “You didn’t have a chance to linger.”

Saulsberry said he wants to learn more about African-American soldiers and their role in the Atlanta Campaign.

While programs in recent years at the current location have stressed diversity and the impact of the war on various populations, the standing exhibits at Grant Park are dated and lack such context. Two years ago, venue spokesman Yakingma Robinson told the Picket that the staff had hoped for new, interactive exhibits. That now will have to wait until the new building at the Atlanta History Center.

In 2011, Kevin Riley, editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, wrote about his visit to the center: “The Cyclorama looks tired -- from the seating, to the diorama, to the painting itself."

With concerns about attendance, funding and the condition of the painting and exhibits, Mayor Reed in 2011 assembled a task force to study solutions. Last summer, Reed and the Atlanta History Center announced the Cyclorama would get a new home.

Robinson and Jones told the Picket that the painting, itself, is in decent shape. But art experts won’t know for sure until the diorama is removed so that they can get a closer look.

Zoo Atlanta's current elephants: Kelly and Tara.

Zoo Atlanta excited about the addition

Although some residents of Grant Park spoke in favor of keeping the Cyclorama, there never appeared to be much formal interaction between the venue and the surrounding neighborhood.

Zoo Atlanta has much deeper ties to residents and associations.

And it’s much more of a destination. While it saw a small attendance bump during the Civil War sesquicentennial, the Cyclorama’s current numbers are between 60,000 and 70,000 annually. Zoo Atlanta anticipates 1 million visitors this year, said Hines, the spokeswoman.

Beyond the expanded savanna exhibit, current plans call for the zoo to use the building for offices and a large special events facility that can be rented. A current Zoo Atlanta administrative building will be torn down to a build “a more rich entry area for the guests.” Hines cautioned plans are subject to change.

Already, the zoo sees weddings, parties and even sleepovers for children.

Conceptual image of expanded exhibit (Zoo Atlanta)

Zoo officials can’t do much inside of their new site until the Atlanta History Center has done some of the necessary restoration work and move the mural.

Hines said it’s not yet clear what decorative or other themes might be put in place in the old Cyclorama building.

“It will be exciting once we do know,” she said of the project. “It will be great for Zoo Atlanta, residents and partners in the neighborhood.”

COMING SOON: A closer look at the Atlanta History Center’s plans for Cyclorama and related exhibits